The feathered fiend asks: Is 101 a speed trap? And whose ugly girl-head is that?

Seems that downtown Tempe has been aflutter lately thanks to a sky full of airborne graffiti. The Bird first caught sight of it last month as it flew through the area: A piece of cardboard hanging from a telephone wire at 18th Street and Farmer Avenue, cut into the shape of a little girl's head, complete with bright red hair and a ghoulish face. She's sort of a cross between Dakota Fanning and the girl from The Ring, and she's darn creepy. Watching this head flap in the wind gave goose bumps to this gander's goose bumps.

Area neighbors weren't asking, "What's up with that head?" for long, in part because whacked-out art students from ASU randomly display recent assignments in the 'hood all the time, and in part because their attention was diverted by a second head, which turned up shortly after. This second arty noggin was hung high at Ninth Street and Ash Avenue, across from Casey Moore's, again with the same ghoulish expression but this time with green hair.

The Tempe Police say they know nothing, but Jake, of Jake's Chop Shop on University, was more forthcoming. According to Jake, the "artist" in question is just some punk who works at a local skate shop and wants a little local notoriety after getting busted for "expressing himself" with graffiti. The dude reportedly looked to the heavens for an answer to the question, "How can I deface public property with my special brand of wit without landing in the poky?" Instead of seeing God (or even The Bird), he saw telephone wires and other available perches and was struck dumb with inspiration. (Would that the would-be artist had been struck with something sharper -- and heavier!)

Fred Harper

Go Speed Racer go!

Lilia Menconi

Public art is cool.

The result? A town that's fast becoming hung up with big ugly girl-heads hung from trees and telephone wires.